Surprise Review: Little Giants · 10:10pm February 7th

Rating Scale:

12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made

Greetings, folks! This is Mr. J back with a special surprise review for the month. Today, I will be reviewing Warner Bros’ family/comedy film entitled “Little Giants” released in 1994. I remember watching this movie back in middle school; our teacher would always have us watch a movie in class every Friday, and this was one of the films he introduced us to. It was pretty fun back then, and I wanted to revisit this movie for the first time in years.

So just about a couple hours ago, I gave this movie a watch on Tubi…and it was just as fun as I remember. Although I wouldn’t consider it to be a great film, I still found it to be decently entertaining for the most part.

The story is about two brothers who grew up very competitive with each other. One became a local coach for a youth football team whereas the other is a single father of a strong young girl who loves playing football. The latter challenges his older brother by raising a team of inexperienced children who don’t know how to play football: the Little Giants.

I like the way they wrote this movie. It is quite simple, yet it manages to make these characters a little relatable in a category we often familiarize ourselves with: sports.

From my perspective, sports is a direct way of manifesting someone’s personality and inner strength. Football, of course, is one of the most popular sports out there, and we can truly see how brutal these players can be. In this story alone, it’s a way these children can grow and learn more about themselves.

We have Danny O’Shea who sees the best in his daughter and in the other kids and tries his best to coach them for the football game. His brother Kevin, however, is cocky, sarcastic, and arrogant in his ways. But despite his negative traits, he still has a sympathetic side to him. He doesn’t hate his brother or anything; he just doesn’t like to lose.

Even when he interacts with his niece, he still tries to be a decent uncle. He may not have chosen her to be a part of his own team, but he still cares about her to some degree.

Rick Moranis and Ed O’Neill carried this movie with their great acting and charisma. The child actors honestly felt a little wooden in their performances, but I’ll let it side since it’s what is usually expected from them. The kids themselves aren’t that good as characters, though, due to their one-dimensional personality traits.

The best parts of this film were its well-timed comedic moments. Ed O’Neill was the most hilarious out of them all, and he didn’t even try to be one. The part where he accidentally ran right through the window, landed on a tree branch hard on his ass, and then fell into the pool was unexpectedly hilarious because he was trying to ram into a sofa cushion held by his wife. She was so afraid she had to jump out of the way. That never gets old!

The main thing that stood out to me is the objective lesson about two things: playing sports because it’s fun to do and never giving up even when you lose. Sports in particular can be really fun for better or for worse for so many people. If you get really competitive, you’ll end up hurting yourself and other people around you—emotionally and sometimes physically.

But if you play football or any other sport because you find it fun to do without getting too dangerously competitive, then we’ll all become good sports at the end. No hard feelings, no sour moods. We just need to work with our strengths and weaknesses and live with them.

So overall, this movie did a serviceable job in emphasizing these lessons and making it as fun and enjoyable as possible. With that said, I give this a simple 7/10. Not a memorable family film, but I wouldn’t mind checking it out at least once a year if I want to. I mildly recommend checking it out for yourself if you’re into sports.

RIP Harry Fleer, Dabbs Greer, Myron Healey, Rance Howard, John Madden, and Pat Crawford Brown.